A Vicar’s Guide

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31730, 13 July 1968, Page 4

A Vicar’s Guide

Empty Tomb or Empty Faith? By R. J. Nicholson. G. W. Moore, Ltd. The author of this book is a Vicar of a North Island parish. He is not a professional theologian, but as a parish minister he has been disturbed by the published statements of Professor Geering. So concerned is he for the average parshioner that he has written this booklet as a guide to the perplexed. From the outset, he notes the disturbance as a conflict in ideas between the faith of Professor Geering and “The Faith” as it has been known in the long history of the Church. With regard to the faith of the former, he defines it as an expression of the religious quest of man, in which, through an insight into the life of Jesus, man has a faith by which to live. In contrast with this discovery by man, he sees the faith of the Church as man’s response to God’s act in Jesus Christ. The credal statements which describe the faith are known as “The Faith” of the Church. Such statements are open to examination and restatement,

but the faith itself amidst the change remains intact. This faith then is received as God’s gift to man. As these positions are seen to be in conflict the author inquiries as to the causes of the differing standpoints. So it is that he examines Professor Geering’s views about the nature of God and His activity, the Bible and its authority, immortality and its possibility, the Church and its definition. He concludes that whilst Professor Geering has a right to his own views, and whilst some scholars may support them in the main, such liberal views on all the above-men-tioned matters are open to debate. It is his hope that many church people will show caution at this time. This work is not a profound theological exercise but it is a “cry of protest” and “a Defence of The Faith’ ” by an orthodox churchman who does not believe that man has “come of age” (in the secular sense) but is still man, in need of The Faith of the Church. Professor Geering's faith, he sees, not as a refinement of Christianity, but as a poor substitute.